{"id":42068,"date":"2026-03-16T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=42068"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:50:37","slug":"paleontologists-uncover-a-new-spinosaurus-species-by-following-a-clue-from-a-decadesold-book-into-the-sahara-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/paleontologists-uncover-a-new-spinosaurus-species-by-following-a-clue-from-a-decadesold-book-into-the-sahara-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Paleontologists uncover a new Spinosaurus<\/em> species by following a clue from a decades\u2011old book into the Sahara Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paul C. Sereno<\/a>, University of Chicago<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome<\/a> in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: \u201cDent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus<\/em> Dep\u00e9ret,\u201d which translates to \u201ctooth of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus<\/em> Dep\u00e9ret\u201d \u2013 \u201cDep\u00e9ret\u201d refers to the scientist who originally named the species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intrepid French geologist Hugues Faure<\/a> (1928-2003) had collected one saber-shaped tooth in the early 1950s at a small exposure he labeled \u201cAkarazeras\u201d on one of his maps, identifying the tooth as belonging to the T. rex-size predator Carcharodontosaurus<\/a><\/em>. That beast was named years before based on fossils in the Western Desert of Egypt, and Faure correctly figured the tooth and outcrop in Niger might be the same age. Faure\u2019s tooth, unfortunately, was never figured or photographed and has been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 70 years since Faure\u2019s account, no paleontologist had ventured back to this hyperarid, windswept landscape to attempt to relocate Akarazeras. In truth, the tooth might have been all that was there, and the site itself could easily have disappeared under drifting dunes. Yet, after reading about it early in my career as a paleontologist<\/a>, Akarazeras became my fossil Shangri-La, a place I dreamed of visiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akarazeras relocated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With a small exploratory team in 2019<\/a>, I followed a desert trail to the remote oasis of Tanout, the closest inhabited point to Akarazeras. There we refreshed our supplies \u2013 food, water and fuel \u2013 to survive a three-day foray in the open desert in search of the locale. Besides binoculars, we had a few gadgets Faure couldn\u2019t have imagined: GPS hand units and a drone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating using Faure\u2019s map brought us to a flat, barren spot with nothing in sight to the horizon. We drove several kilometers to the north, climbed to the top of our vehicles and launched the drone. One of my team members spotted a low rocky outcrop at distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after arriving at the exposure, we found several Carcharodontosaurus<\/em> teeth and, a short distance away, the rim of an infilled, hand-dug well. We had found Akarazeras. By the next afternoon, we had finished packing up a few dozen fossil teeth and bones. We probed in every direction and sent the drone farther to see if there was anything else to find. Nothing but sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chance encounter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That might have been the end of the story had not a tall, lanky man arrived in our Tanout campground the evening we returned. Looking like a Tuareg Marvel character, Abdoul Nasser stood next to his Honda motorbike, dressed in a full-length black overcoat, a cheche head wrap, sunglasses and a sheathed sword slung over his shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can take you to some large bones, farther than Akarazeras,\u201d he said in Tamasheq, with guides translating to French. This seemed more than a boast or scam. I decided to devote our final three days to this venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Our Tuareg guide to the site of the new Spinosaurus<\/em> species, Abdoul Nasser, left, with paleontologist Dan Vidal, right, en route to the fossil area Jenguebi. Alhadji Akamaya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A day and a half later, we had spent half our fuel chasing our motorbike guide over an endless dunescape. Just as we questioned going farther, Abdoul slowed to a stop in front of the largest fossil hind leg I had ever seen, its thigh bone nearly 6 feet (2 meters) long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sun set, we scurried from skeleton to skeleton \u2013 it was a veritable dinosaur graveyard. The next morning we had a half-hour at this place locals called Jenguebi before we had to leave. I and my colleague, Spanish paleontologist Dan Vidal<\/a>, quickly collected large jaw pieces of what we assumed was Carcharodontosaurus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
Paul Sereno, left, and paleontologist Dan Vidal, right, next to the gigantic hind limb of a long-necked dinosaur moments after arriving at Jenguebi. Matthew Irving\/Fossil lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Epiphany in the lab and field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back in Chicago, the cleaned and assembled jaw pieces told another story. They belonged to the giant fish-eating dinosaur called Spinosaurus,<\/em> which refers to a group of semiaquatic, T. rex-size beasts known from the northern shores of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than two years, plans to return to Niger were scuttled by the pandemic. Finally, in 2022<\/a>, I led an international, 20-person field crew with a larger guard back to Jenguebi to see whether we could turn up more of the elusive predator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was busy arranging the campsite an hour after arriving when Dan Vidal approached, wide-eyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t believe what we just found \u2026 the snout end of our skull!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team quickly gathered around the toothed bone jutting from the surface of the desert, some in tears, bearing witness to an extraordinary discovery. The snout end fit onto one of the jaw pieces we had collected in 2019. Hours later, Dan approached again with a curved bone in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you think this is?\u201d he asked, wanting confirmation for what we both immediately recognized as a landmark discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Expedition member Ana L\u00e1zaro holds the cranial crest of Spinosaurus mirabilis<\/em> at the Jenguebi site. Alvaro Simarro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The scimitar-shaped bone he held came from the top of the skull. Unlike the low, fluted crest atop the cranium of Spinosaurus<\/em> from Egypt, called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus<\/em>, this bone swept upward and backward over the orbital \u2013 the space for the eyes. In the cool of the evening, the team gathering around Dan and his laptop to get a glimpse of an initial skull reconstruction, an assembly of digital versions of the bones we had discovered. In awe, we saw the Jenguebi spinosaurid for the first time, a spectacular southern variant of the sail-backed predator first described in Egypt in 1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the lab, we coined a species name in Latin<\/a> that captured our collective \u201castonishment\u201d upon its discovery, Spinosaurus mirabilis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The expedition team watches the laptop of paleontologist Dan Vidal to see the first digital reconstruction of the scimitar-crested skull of Spinosaurus mirabilis<\/em>. Expedition Impossible LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An organization I launched with Nigeriens, NigerHeritage<\/a>, has visualized new museums in the country\u2019s capital, Niamey, and closer to the fossil sites in Agadez that will preserve and display these and many other fossils. A secure homecoming for these remarkable finds also involves a new generation of Nigerien museologists, scholars and museums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An inland fish-eater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Other animals at the site included two new long-necked plant-eaters, a partial skull of Carcharodontosaurus<\/a><\/em>, a large skull of a freshwater fish and fossil wood. All of the fossils came from a layer of river-borne sediment less than a meter thick, indicating they lived in the same forested inland area far from a marine coastline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the giant fish-eater Spinosaurus<\/em> has been depicted in Hollywood\u2019s \u201cJurassic World Rebirth\u201d as a swimming, diving ocean predator alongside other undoubtedly marine creatures like mosasaurs<\/a>. In 2020, a team of researchers had reinterpreted<\/a> Spinosaurus aegyptiacus<\/em> in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubbed the \u201caquatic hypothesis,\u201d the key inspiration was the discovery that the sail on its back extended over its tail. The structure of the tail and other lines of evidence, however, led me and my research team to an alternative view<\/a> of the fish-eater \u2013 as a shallow-water, wading, ambush predator with little capacity for swimming and none for diving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from its crest, S. mirabilis<\/em> is very similar to its cousin S. aegyptiacus<\/em> from the northern coast of Africa. Their lifestyles likely also were very similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
A flesh model of Spinosaurus mirabilis<\/em>. Dani Navarro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Evolutionary stages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The early record of spinosaurids, known only from a few teeth, is rooted in the Jurassic, when they first gained a taste for fish. Over the past few years, researchers have found spinosaurid fossils<\/a> in many locales in rocks of Early Cretaceous age in southern Europe and Asia, sites that once were near the ancient Tethys Sea<\/a>. At that time, 115 to 130 million years ago, spinosaurids had split into two subgroups<\/a> \u2013 baryonychines and spinosaurines \u2013 that collectively dominated the Tethyan realm as the largest predators of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the dawn of the Late Cretaceous, only spinosaurines remained as larger and more specialized and flamboyant fish-eaters on the southern side of the Tethys Sea in coastal and inland habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S. mirabilis<\/em> is among the last of these great predators. It is perhaps best understood as a \u201chell heron,\u201d the likes of which we can only imagine when observing the more graceful, if less fearsome, herons of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article was updated to include the flesh diagram of S. mirabilis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul C. Sereno<\/a>, Professor of Paleontology, University of Chicago<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul C. Sereno, University of Chicago My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: \u201cDent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Dep\u00e9ret,\u201d which translates to \u201ctooth of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Dep\u00e9ret\u201d \u2013 \u201cDep\u00e9ret\u201d refers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":42069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292,1862,10,118,3410],"tags":[174,10369,248,885,891,886,860,5714,1206,1958,17562,15373],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42070,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42068\/revisions\/42070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}